The Martyrdom: a Day of Tears Sections 135-136

Meridian Magazine--Come Follow Me Latter-day Saint Podcast

Scot Facer Proctor

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

November 24-30

Maurine and I lead a church history tour every year. We’ve done this for 30 years. We take our many participants through two days of Revolutionary War and the foundations of freedom. Then we go to Sharon, Vermont and begin Joseph Smith’s life chronologically and naturally we end the two weeks in the Carthage Jail. It’s an unbelievable experience. We always have a testimony meeting that last day after the emotional experience of the Carthage Jail. I’ll never forget one year, one of the brothers on the tour, who had been especially attentive throughout that two-week period, said emphatically in his testimony, while still on the Jail grounds, “I’m so angry. I’m just so angry!” Since we had never heard that as part of a testimony before and he gave a rather long pause, I cut in and asked aloud, “Why?” He said, “Because they killed him. They killed Joseph Smith. It was unjust. It was wrong. It was so wrong. I’m just so angry.” And that was his final testimony. And it stuck with me. Let’s explore the historical, emotional and passionate ending of Joseph and Hyrum Smith’s lives today.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Maureen and I lead a church history tour every year.
0:07.0	We've done this for more than 30 years.
0:10.0	We take our many participants through two days of Revolutionary War and the foundations of freedom.
0:17.0	Then we go to Sharon, Vermont and begin Joseph Smith's life chronologically, and naturally,
0:22.6	we end the two weeks in the Carthage Jail.
0:26.6	It's an unbelievable experience.
0:29.6	We always have a testimony meeting that last day after the emotional experience they've had in the Carthage Jail.
0:36.6	I'll never forget one year, one of the
0:39.7	brothers on the tour who had been especially attentive throughout the two-week period said
0:44.8	emphatically in his testimony while still on the jail grounds, I'm so angry, I'm just so angry.
0:53.8	Since we had never heard that as part of a testimony before,
0:57.6	and he gave a rather long pause, I cut in and ask aloud, why? He said, because they killed him.
1:05.8	They killed Joseph Smith. It was unjust. It was wrong. It was so wrong, I'm just so angry. And that was his
1:13.6	final testimony, and it stuck with me. Let's explore the historical, emotional, and passionate
1:21.1	ending of Joseph and Hiram Smith's lives today. Welcome to Meridian Magazine's Come Follow Me podcast.
1:29.7	We are Scott and Maureen Proctor and we are delighted to be with you again today
1:34.1	and share our witnesses and testimonies of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
1:40.3	Will you share this podcast with your family and friends?
1:43.2	It's easy.
1:45.6	Just tell them to go to latterday saintmag.com forward slash podcast or tell them to go to any of their favorite
1:51.2	podcast platforms and just search for Meridian Magazine, come follow me. And with the gift giving season
1:59.1	starting, will you put on your list the Come Follow Me
	...

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